


Three Sentence Ficlets (X-Men)

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, 3 Sentence Fiction, Addiction, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet, Character Study, Communication, F/M, Gen, Love, Multi, Prompt Fic, Relationship Study, Secrets, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 12:12:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8750404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: Tiny ficlets written for various iterations of the Three Sentence Ficathon.1) Raven tries again to get through to Charles. 2) Rogue never tells anyone how good her power feels to use. 3) Emma's jagged edges don't quite match up to Scott's own wounds. 4) Scott and Jean have a standing monthly weekend date.





	1. Open All the Doors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grim_lupine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grim_lupine/gifts), [celeste9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven tries again to get through to Charles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/9/11 for [grim_lupine](http://grim_lupine.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: [X-Men: First Class, Charles/Raven/Erik, everything good comes in three](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/140906.html?thread=2461290#t2461290).

It's hard beyond hard to break the habits of decades, but Raven slips into Charles's study -- not the kitchen this time, he can't complain about her being naked in public, and anyway she's shaped a bit of herself into a little white sundress just to forestall the prudery he wears like a shield against the darker currents of the mind-sea he swims in -- and clears her throat to interrupt his game (chess or otherwise) with Erik.

"Charles," she says, "Charles, you have to stop making assumptions and _listen_ to us, and make us listen to what you mean instead of just what you say -- you're not as good with words as you think you are, no matter how much you practice, and we can't keep going on half-truths and misunderstandings, not when we're fighting for our right to even _exist_ , let alone stop hiding who we really are."

She takes his wrists and raises his hands, presses one to her face and the other to Erik's -- Erik stills for a moment, his eyes searching her face until something clicks into place, south pole locking onto north, and he gives her a tiny nod and wraps his hand around hers, pulling Charles's limp fingers to his temple -- and when Charles tries to pull back, when he says, "But I shouldn't, I promised you, Raven, it's not right," Raven weighs what she wants against what she fears, and drops all her shields to ask her brother in.


	2. But Oh, To Be Without It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogue never tells anyone how good her power feels to use.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/16/13 for [silvr_dagger](http://silvr_dagger.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: [ X-Men (any version), Rogue, AU - she's not just a leech, she's an actual energy vampire](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/148732.html?thread=3932924#t3932924).

What she never tells anyone is how _good_ it feels. The rush of stolen life is sweeter than water to a dying traveler in the desert, and for days afterwards -- weeks, if she's careless and lets her hand linger, edges right up to the point where the drain shifts from skimming off the top and she starts to pull _who they are_ , starts to choke on her prey's messy thoughts and the unspoken tangles of hope and love and hate and desire -- she picks at her food, all the mundane business of digestion and glucose cycles so unnecessary when she's brimful with energy and almost fancies she must be giving off sparks.

Rogue never drinks on purpose, never gives the Professor any excuse to think she hasn't learned her lessons and changed her ways, but she's no plaster saint untouched by temptation, and sometimes she can't help flying to the city -- any city will do, so long as the weather is warm -- where she walks amidst thousands of strangers, thinks how easy it would be to pocket her gloves and brush her fingers across bare skin, and bites her tongue in a futile effort to keep her mouth from watering.


	3. at the broken places

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma's jagged edges don't quite match up to Scott's own wounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/2/16 for [celeste9](http://celeste9.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: [X-Men comics, Emma/Scott, rough edges](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/151259.html?thread=5154267#t5154267).

Emma's jagged edges don't quite match up to Scott's own wounds; what shattered her, he might have survived with fewer scars, and the blows that tore him to shreds over the years might have found less purchase in her mind and heart. Some days he hates the way they miss each other's more idiosyncratic tripwires and scrape each other raw, the way he lost the ability to just _be_ with a lover somewhere between Apocalypse and Jean's last death and therefore can't help Emma learn that alchemy of warmth and grace.

Other days, he thinks maybe they're stronger because of those flaws; you get back from a relationship what you put in, after all, and if he and Emma haven't yet learned comfort, they haven't learned complacency either, and Scott will trade almost anything up to his soul (...and maybe even that) to keep from losing another person he loves.


	4. the golden age of the barefoot time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott and Jean have a standing monthly weekend date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/2/16 for [iawenbemerry](http://iawenbemerry.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: [X-Men (preferably movieverse but doesn't have to be), Scott/Jean, the moments no one else sees](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/151259.html?thread=5284571#t5284571).

Scott and Jean have a standing monthly weekend date -- sometimes adjusted on account of crises, but always kept -- where they leave the mansion for a full twenty-four hours, disappearing from one evening to the next.

The general consensus among the students is that they go out for a fancy dinner, and maybe sex (opinions are split between super vanilla and super kinky) in a swanky hotel down in the city where they can be sure no mutant senses (noses, ears, brains) will disturb their privacy; a few hold out for more cerebral things like visits to museums and other cultural interest spots (on the theory that thinking of teachers and sex in the same sentence is gross and also, seriously, Scott and Jean are _just that boring_ ); and one or two have even suggested that the Professor lends out two of his best and brightest to the CIA on timeshare in order to keep the school under the rest of the government's radar.

Jean takes great delight in recounting these theories to Scott, who then takes equal delight in planting new rumors, both of them secure in the knowledge that nobody will ever guess they use their jealously guarded days of freedom to beat each other over the head with feather pillows, eat dessert for dinner and then again for breakfast, rent all the children's movies they never got to see, spend hours petting cats at animal shelters, and generally indulge in the idyllic, archetypal childhoods that they both lost too soon, and which they will give their lives to make sure their own students can hold on to as long as they possibly can.


End file.
